Several social media platforms yet to share online safety plans with regulator

Coimisiún na Meán’s Online Safety Code obliges YouTube, TikTok, Pinterest, Reddit, Tumblr, Facebook, Instagram, Udemy, LinkedIn, and X (formerly Twitter) to take specific actions to combat harmful content such as cyber bullying, the promotion of eating disorders, and promotion of self-harm and suicide. Picture: Yui Mok/PA

Major social platforms such as X and Reddit have yet to tell the media regulator how they will clamp down on children watching pornographic content on their sites, ahead of a July deadline for the introduction of age checks.

Speaking to the Irish Examiner, online safety commissioner Niamh Hodnett said the platforms that Coimisiún na Meán must regulate carry “different risks”.

Ms Hodnett also hinted that investigations may soon be forthcoming into some of the big tech giants with European headquarters in Ireland.

“There’s been extensive engagement with these platforms since [last year],” she said.

“If the supervisory team come to the view they’ve reached a dead end or the end of the road in relation to supervisory dialogue, and the behaviours haven’t changed, then the matter gets escalated to the enforcement team, who then open the matter for investigation.” 

In July, the second part of Coimisiún na Meán’s Online Safety Code comes into force. 

It obliges YouTube, TikTok, Pinterest, Reddit, Tumblr, Facebook, Instagram, Udemy, LinkedIn, and X (formerly Twitter) to take specific actions to combat harmful content such as cyber bullying, the promotion of eating disorders, and promotion of self-harm and suicide.

They must also introduce age verification checks to ensure those under the age of 18 cannot view pornography or extreme violence on their platforms.

The regulator has not been prescriptive on what form this age verification should take, but said it must be robust and ticking a box to say you are overage would not be sufficient. 

Previously, its executive chair Jeremy Godfrey told the Irish Examiner that a requirement for a person to show their passport and then a selfie to verify they are the person on the ID could be described as a “gold standard”.

Sanctions for breaches of the code can run into the tens or hundreds of millions of euro.

X, Reddit, and Tumblr have taken separate judicial reviews in the High Court against the Online Safety Code. 

While Reddit and Tumblr failed in these bids, X’s case is set to be heard in June, just a month before the code is set to apply to the site.

“In relation to the three platforms in question, no we haven’t had sight of what exactly their proposed plans are but nor do we have communication that they’re absolutely not going to do it,” she said.

Ms Hodnett added there is no “indicative timeline” for it launching investigations into particular firms if they believe it to be breaching its obligations but said that discussions with these platforms are ongoing.

“We said what’s key for us is getting the behavioural change, rather than the big fines,” she said. 

“But, of course, if we’re not seeing the behavioural change, we will have to resort to investigation and enforcement. Again, not prejudging anything.”